We’ve been receiving dozens of stories from people coast to coast about the transformative power of music. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and we are publishing a story every day in May.
Submitted by: Haley Perlus
Song: What A Feeling by Irene Cara
I love to dance so it’s fitting that my favourite movie of all time is Flashdance—and the big song, “What a Feeling.” Every time I hear it, I’m reminded of my childhood, dancing, and just feeling happy.
As a teenager growing up in Toronto, my mom would wake me up for school by singing and dancing. She’d pull me out of bed in my PJs and dance around my bedroom. What a way to start the day! It was my pre-performance routine, to put my performance coach hat on.
On the weekends we went to our lake house two hours north of the city. In the family room, there was a sliding door like a mirror and there you’d find me dancing in front of it imagining I was just like Alex, the main character in Flashdance. There’s a scene when she free dances in front of the window and explains how the music starts and just makes her body start to move. Something inside of her clicks. “You just take off and you’re gone,” she says.
The rhythm and the lyrics of “What a Feeling” are so up-tempo and empowering, they’re still part of my pre-performance playlist. In fact, they are part of my happy playlist, my sad playlist, and my workout playlist. That beat really does wrap around and take a hold of my heart. When I sing along, I believe that I can take my passion and make it happen, just like in the song.
Music is the quickest, most inexpensive legal stimulant out there. It’s one of the most powerful tools I use when I work with athletes—and myself. Music can help us hold our ground. That can mean staying positive. Or, if you need to stay sad for a week, it can help you stay sad. And finally, it can help you with the transition, allow you to move from one emotion to another.
We are all sad, angry, or fearful sometimes—we have to be. Those negative emotions help us explore ourselves and learn about what we want out of life. But then we have to move out of the sadness or the anger into a joyful, peaceful place. That’s where the best performances happen, and overall happiness lies.
Fear helps us light a fire, but we perform best when we turn it into a challenge, which is more of a positive emotion—and more aligned with peak performance. Most people perform best when they’re confident and challenged. You have to choose your story. Your story impacts your emotions, which influences your behaviour. You can’t control what happens to you, but choosing your story lets you control how you react to it. Music helps us all create our stories.
If I turn on “What a Feeling,” I’m 95 percent sure that I’m going to look at my story in a more productive way, one that will help me rather than hurt me. Because that song reminds me of moments dancing in my bedroom with my mom, watching the movie as a girl, and dancing at the lake house. It makes me believe that anything can happen. I tell myself a story that will help make me the best I can be and, like the song says, make it happen!
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Haley Perlus, born in Toronto, is a sport and exercise psychologist with certifications in coaching, nutrition, and fitness. An author, speaker, and consultant, she is also an adjunct lecturer at the University of Colorado.
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